Sharp County record., 1887-09-29
TALMAGEYS SERMON.
The Brooklyn Preacher at "The
Hamptons."
A Discourse on Paurs Departure from
Earth to the Glories Beyoh"-
The Apostles Final Triumph
Over Death.

Rev. #. Dewitt Talmage preached at
] WThe Hamptons" on receHt Haooalii'
taking for his topic "From dungeon 10
Palace HIS text was:
| The time Of my departure is al manu.
Timothy iv., 6.
The way out of this world is so blocked
mn with coffin and hearse, and under
takers spade and screw-drlver, that the
Christian can hardly think as he ought OF
the most cheerful passage in all MS MS
torv. We hang black instead OF whlte
over the place where the good man gets
! his last victory. We stand weeping over
| a heap of chains which the freed soul mas
! shaken off, and we say:
| "Poor man! What a pity it was ne haa
to come to this"
Come TO whatl By the time the people
have assem- bled at the obsequies that
man has been three days so happy that
all the joys of earth accumulated Wouiu
he wrctchedness beside it, and he might
better weep over you because you nave
10 stav than you weep over MIN De-
! cause he had to go. 1t is fortunate
thing that good man does not nave 10
wait to see his own obsequles; they would
he so discordant with his own experience.
If the Israelites should go back to Egypt
and mourn over the brick-klns they once
| left, thev would not be any more silly
than that Christian who should 1orsaKe
Heaven and come down and mourn pe-
cause he had to leave this world. Our
idea of a Christians death are morbid
and sickly. We look upon it as a DARK
hole In which a man tumbles when his
breath gives out. The whole subject Is
odorous with varnish and disinfectants
instead of being sweet with mignonette.
Paul, in nv text, takes that great clod OF
a word "death" and throws it away, and
speaks of his "departure"-beautlful,
bright, suggestive word, descriptive OF
every Christians release.
Now, departure implies starting place
and a place of destination. When Paul
left this world, what was the starting
point} 1t was scence OF great physical
distress 1t was the Tullianum, the lower
dungeon of the Mamertine prison The
TOP dungeo was bad enough, it having
no means of ingress or egress but through
an opening in the top Through that the
prisoner was lowered, and through that
came all the food and air and light re-
ceived. 1t was terrible place, that up
per dungeon; but the Tallianum was the
lower dungeon, and that was still more
wretched, the only light and the only air
coming through the roof, and that roof
the floor of the upper dungeon.
That was Paurs last earthly residence
1t was dungeon just six and half feet
high. 1t was doleful place, 1t had the
chill of long centuries of dampness:. IL
was filthy with the long incarcerations
of miserable wretches. 1t was there that
Paul spent his last days on
earth, and it is there that l see him to-
day, In the fearful dungeon, shivering,
blue with cold, waiting for that old over
coat which he had sent for up to Troas,
and which they had not sent down, not
witistanding he had written for it. -
If some skillful surgeon should 60 into
that dungeon where Paul is incarcerated,
we might find out what are, the prospects
! of Paups living through the rough I'M
prisonment In the first place, he is an old
man, only two years short Of seventy. At
| that very time when he most needs the
warmth, and the sunlight, and the fresh
air, he is shut out from the sun. What
are those scars on his anklesa Why,
those were gotten when he was fast, his
| feet in the stocks. Every time he turned
| the flesh on his ankles started. What
a"e those scars on his back' You know
| he was whipped five times, each time get
| ting thirty-nine strokes-one hun
| dred and ninety five bruises on the
| back (count themD made by the
Jews with rods of elmwood, each
| one of the one hundred and ninety i've
strokes bringing the blood, Look at P2-sr S
| face and look at his armsl Where did he
get those bruisesl think 1t was when
he was struggling ashore amidst the
shivered timbers of the shipwreck. / see
q cash in Paurs side Where did he get
thatl think he got that in the tussle
with the highwaymen, for he had been in
peril of robbers, and he had money Of his
own. He was a mechanic as we'll as an
apostle, and l think the tents he made
were as good as his sermons.
There is a wanness about Paul's looks
What makes thatl think part Of that
came from the fact that he was for
twenty-four hours on plank in the Med
iterranean sea, suffering terribly before
he was rescued; for he says, positively:
81 was night and day in the deep"
Oh, worn-out, emaciated ole mani sure
ly you must be melancholy; no constitu-
tiun could endure this and be cheerful
But l press my way through the prison
until | come up close to where he is; and
by the faint light that streams through
the opening see on his face a supernat-
ural ioy, and bow before him and l say:
"Aged man, how can you keep cheerful
amid all this gloom"
His voice startles the darkness OF the
place as he cries out.
lam now ready to be offered, and the time Of
my departure is at hand.
Hark what is that shutting Of feet in
the upper dungeon9 Why, Paul has an
invitation to banquet, and he is going to
dine to-day with the King. Those shuf-
fling feet are the feet of the executi oners.
They come, and they cry down through
the hole of the dungeon.
"Hurry up, old man. Come now; get
yourself ready"
Why, Paul was ready. He had nothing
to pack up. He had no baggage to take.
He had been ready a good while. ! see
him rising up and Strengthening out his
stiffened limbs, and pushing back his
white hair from his crevlced forehead,
and see him looking up through the hole
in the roof of the dungeon into the face of
his executioner, and hear him say: